Sunday, 14 June 2015

Funko POP! Marvel: Venom

Company: Funko

Series: POP! Marvel

Year: 2015

If we rewind time back to the early- to mid-1990s, take a
trip down to the local newsagent and pick up a comic book, the odds are pretty
strong that it will be DARK and EDGY, filled with impossibly muscular men and
woman who do SERIOUS THINGS while looking GRIM AND DETERMINED. Not because it
really serves the plot, enhances the character or anything like that, but it’s
mostly because that’s what the trend was at the time. You thought Batman was
dark and brooding in the 70s or the 80s? Well, old man, SPAWN is here and he’s
got more inner turmoil and EDGY ARTWORK than a thousand Frank Millers could
ever bring to boring old Batman.

It’s easy to make fun of the “90s edge”, of course, but it
did give us some fun comics and some very cool characters – one of them being Venom
(even though he debuted in 1988). He has a cast a long shadow over the
Spider-Man Universe that very few characters will ever manage to equal. Time
has diluted his impact and character design, and he’s been spun-off into a
zillion different other symbiotes – but though I’ve never been particularly
huge Spider-Man fan, I have a lot of respect for Venom. Which is why I picked
up this Funko POP!

I mentioned in my Spider-Man 2099 review that Funko had
presumably released that figure to get a new character into circulation with
minimum cost. Well, at least some of these cost-savings have been funnelled
into Venom – he’s got an elaborate head with sculpted eyes, spiky teeth and
protruding tongue. His legs and torso seem to be from the basic Funko body, but
the arms and hands are all new – his fingers are long and claw-like, which
befits the character’s vicious streak. The regular body just would have done it
here.

The sculpting work is great, but on the downside, paint is likely to be
an issue. Venom’s “spider logo” is pretty clean I’ve seen on the three examples
I’ve run into in person – but the face is a different story. The mouth, tongue
and teeth are likely to have small points of slop that you’ll have to be okay
with, but the eyes are a little tricker. Depending on the example you find,
they can be pretty good – like the pictured example – but the chances of issues
like missing spots or overspray are quite high. Such is the nature of buying
POPs. Funko’s improved a lot, but there’s still plenty of room for more improvement.

Though I don’t think he’s perfect – I always imagine Venom
being particularly large in comparison with regular characters, and he’s kind
of regular height here – I think he’s turned out pretty darn well. As with
Spider-Man 2099, this guy is highly recommended for any Spider-fan and for
anyone who likes the 1990s in general.